The City of Portland has long been a supporter of the Creative Advocacy Network, but funding for 2012 came with a catch: Recruitment of 2,500 Twitter followers and 1,500 Facebook fans.
In order to meet those goals and unlock a $75,000 grant, the arts organization started a Twitter campaign, using the hashtag #CreativelyPDX, that rewarded participants with prizes, such as tickets to the Oregon Symphony and Wordstock, along with the chance to tweet with the mayor and sing along with Pink Martini’s Thomas Lauderdale.
Over the last two weeks, the hashtag has been mentioned more than 450 times, according to statistics from Topsy, a social media search engine.
Early this morning, the Creative Advocacy Network reached its goal, thanks to Twitter mentions by Colin Meloy (@ColinMeloy) of the Decemberists, Twitter artist and Portland resident Matt Haggett (@tw1tt3rart), and @naoshim140 of Fukui, Japan.
“@theartscan I gave you a tweet up with my account @tw1tt3rart… 25 new followers after 1 minute :)” tweeted Haggett under his personal account.
The Daily Dot has reached out to the Creative Advocacy Network and is waiting to hear back.
Image by Chris Spooner; Illustration by Fernando Alfonso III